


Passing Time, Fighting Night

by Aetherschreiber



Series: Aetherschreiber's Fics From Back in the Day [1]
Category: X-Men Evolution
Genre: Angst, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 08:26:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9596276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aetherschreiber/pseuds/Aetherschreiber
Summary: Shadowcat takes a quick, little unexpected jaunt through time, fifteen years into the future.  But everything has gone so wrong.  Now Shadowcat needs to rely on a group of strangers and one old friend to get back to her own time.





	1. In the Footsteps of Alice

**Author's Note:**

> Written and published in 2001, I think this is probably the first multi-chapter fic that I actually finished. That's maybe a little depressing as I had been writing multi-chapter fics for about five years by then. But, hey, when you're a thirteen-year-old fangirl, you have a bit of ferret-brain going on. By this time I was 18 and _starting_ to calm down a _little_.
> 
> Nightcrawler is my favorite X-Man, in any incarnation. But the X-Men: Evolution incarnation may be my favorite of all. I pretty much fell in love with him from episode one of that show and I've never looked back. Oddly enough, this incarnation of Shadowcat is probably my least favorte of the versions of her. Valley girls just plain don't do it for me and she would have been so much more badass with a tiny dragon.
> 
> But I digress...
> 
> This was written during the first season of the show, before the love interest characters for Nightcrawler were introduced. So at the time I shipped Kurtty. Because canon over-rides things for me, that's no longer the case, but this was right up my alley for the time.
> 
> This was also my first go at writing an accent in the form of Nightcrawler's German. It's amateurish and a little silly and I don't usually try to sound out accents any more. I generally find it's best just to describe them and then move on. It makes the text easier for a reader to understand and it's easier to be consistent.

An expanding puff of smoke and the smell of brimstone were the earliest warning signs of the sudden existence of the blue demon with the blazing white eyes. Immediately, he was down on all fours, relying on his larger, more powerful animal-like feet to propel him forward into a run.

His name was Kurt Wagner, although he would never say so if he were stopped during this particular endeavor. For now, he was only known as Nightcrawler.

Dodging numerous trees and bushes, he caught up with the young brown-haired girl in front of him. As he pulled up along side of her in their run, she hardly took notice of him, concentrating on her own sprint.

The path ahead of them narrowed slightly and Nightcrawler noticed that it was only wide enough to allow one of them through it at a time. He took the path, letting his partner go off of it, knowing she would have no trouble with the obstacles. He chanced a glance up to make certain he had been correct and saw her form sliding through the solid greenery as though they weren't there.

She was like him… different. Her name was Kitty Pryde, but for now she was called Shadowcat.

There was another one, up ahead, standing in his path. Nightcrawler skidded to a halt and took off into the woods, off the path. Shadowcat wordlessly followed him, changing her own path. They soon came to a sort of clearing, their only cover suddenly nothing but dried up cattails sticking up from the mud.

"This isn't good," Shadowcat murmured as they came to a halt just short of the mud. "What now?"

"Over there," Nightcrawler stated, pointing through the cattails to a short dock jutting out into the mud clearing. He grabbed on to her and willed his talents to life, surrounding both in that familiar and overwhelming smell of brimstone.

They were suddenly elsewhere. Shadowcat, having ducked at the sudden transport on Nightcrawler's part, stood up and clunked her head on the wood of the dock.

"Ow!" She exclaimed and was suddenly hushed by Nightcrawler's three-fingered hand over her mouth.

There was suddenly a cacophony of clomps from above and a flurry of voices. Three figures stood on the dock above them, looking out across the mud clearing.

"Where the heck they go?" Asked one.

"I dunno," responded the second, "you were the one who said we could head them off by heading around the pond the opposite direction."

"Don't look at me," countered the third, "frankly, I think we should just let that freak go. Whatever it is, it looked like it could do some serious damage."

"That's why we have to kill it," snapped the first.

"Yeah," the second agreed, "someone's gotta be the pest control, you know."

"Whatever," said the first, "we aren't gonna find them by arguing here. They must have left the woods by now. Let's go back up."

The other two agreed and there was another cacophony of boots on wood as they left. Nightcrawler and Shadowcat waited for a few more moments until the three boys were out of sight and definitely out of earshot.

"That was close," Shadowcat sighed.

"This is my fault," Nightcrawler murmured, "I'm sorry, Kitty."

Kitty made a sour face at Kurt as he turned away, settling into a blanket of self pity and disgust. She reached down behind him, grasped his thin, blue tail, and gave it a firm tug.

"Agh!" He exclaimed, turning back to her. "Vhat was dat for?"

"Knock it off, Kurt," she snapped, "this is no more your fault than it is mine or the Queen of Sheba's!"

"But… I-"

It was her turn to put a hand over his mouth.

"No buts, blue boy. How many times do you have to hear it? You can't blame yourself for who you are." This seemed to quiet Kurt and she took her hand off his mouth, instead sticking it out as if to take something. "Now, let me see the watch."  
Quietly, Kurt took off the small watch on his left wrist and handed it to her. She looked it over, popping open the back.  
"Yup," she said, "it's on the fritz again."

Kurt frowned and looked up at her, a slight twinge of fear evident in his eyes. "But it's broad daylight! I can't go anywhere like zis! Those thugs will see me and start chasing us again!"

Kitty handed the watch back to Kurt. "Don't worry," she said, winking, "I've got an idea. They still think I'm nor-… like them… I'll just go and play off their fears a bit, then I'll come back for you when I know they're gone."

"But vhat if they-"

"You got a better idea?"

"Wait until dark?"

"Then we'll be late for practice with Logan. You know how he gets."

He nodded. "I'd rather face the thugs."

"Exactly. I'll knock three times on the dock when it's safe; one long, two short. Now, you stay put. I'll be back in a few." Kitty picked her feet out of the mud and made her way toward the path.

"Be careful!" Kurt called after her.

* * *

 

Later, they were both hustling down a set of railroad tracks, west, into the sunset toward the more upper class part of town.  
"Why does the hologram keep malfunctioning?" Nightcrawler mused aloud between puffs of breath.

Shadowcat, too, was huffing along down the tracks. "Shut up and run, we're late enough as it is."

It had taken longer for Kitty to throw off the thugs than she had expected. The hard-headed jocks from the basketball court had been more stubborn than burrs in a German Shepard's fur. She had finally had to tell them that Nightcrawler had been controlling her mind and she wanted to get back at him by telling the thugs where he had gone. She hated spreading new rumors about Kurt, but it had been her last resort. She knew that Professor Xavier would have a thing or two to say about it, but was content that she and Nightcrawler had a chance to get away, for the moment.

They had decided on taking the railroad tracks for the slight amount of privacy their sloped banks offered on either side. It worried Shadowcat that they didn't have anywhere to go if a train came along, but Nightcrawler had been skittish about leaving the shadows of the dock unless she agreed, so she didn't have much choice.

All in all, she hated how little control she had over the situation.

Suddenly, from their right came a flurry of motion in the long grass on the bank. It headed their way, finally coming to a stop on the tracks just in front of them. Nightcrawler and Shadowcat skidded to a halt, finding it to be one of the thugs, holding a particularly hard looking baseball bat. There was another flurry of motion behind them and as they chanced a glance back, they found it to be the other two thugs, one with a tree branch and another with an old rusted coat hanger. Shadowcat and Nightcrawler took up defensive stances back to back.

"Nice little tale you spun back there, chicky-babe," said the one in front of them, "that freak friend of yours is just freaky enough that I almost believed it. But you didn't notice that I saw you moving through the trees like they weren't there. You're a freak too, ain'cha?"

"Let's trash 'em!" exclaimed the one with the tree branch.

"Shadowcat!" Nightcrawler snapped, grabbing hold of her hand.

The next thing Kitty knew, she was standing in the middle of the front lawn at the Xavier institute, her stomach turning wild loops in her abdomen, the smell of brimstone all around her in the air.

Kurt's iron clad grasp on her hand loosened and he groaned, falling to his knees and putting a hand over his mouth in what seemed to be a desperate attempt to staunch a flow of vomit.

"Kurt!" Kitty exclaimed, kneeling next to him, at a loss for what to do. "You tried to go too far! That was almost two miles!"

  
"I can handle two miles," Kurt said around puffs of breath.

"But not while carrying someone along with you."

The voice had come from their left and they looked up, seeing Xavier and Logan heading their way. The voice had belonged to the former.

"You're late," Logan said, simply.

Kitty frowned up at him. "We were attacked at the basketball court when Kurt's hologram fizzled out again," she stated, sourly, while pulling Kurt to his feet. "They chased us and Kurt teleported us out."

"But he tried to go too far with you along," Logan snapped back, "he doesn't have that much control yet, you both could have been stuck between places."

"Or ve could have been stuck inside a vall somevhere," Kurt shot back, still a little weakly, "I von't teleport anyvere I don't know. Especially not vhen I have someone along!"

"Listen up, rookie, you've got a lot to-"

"That's enough, Logan," Xavier interrupted Logan's tirade, "Kurt's right, in this case. If he had tried to teleport somewhere he didn't know, they both might have teleported into something solid. I don't have to tell you what that would have done to them if that had happened." He turned to Kurt the Kitty. "You two have had enough action for today, I think. You'd better sit out training and leave it to the others. Now, let's get Kurt inside so he can rest."

* * *

 

Kitty closed the door to Kurt's room as quietly as she could, sneaking one last glance at his amazingly peaceful, sleeping face. He had fallen asleep as soon as his head had hit the pillow, before she even had a chance to tell him to sleep tight.

After closing the door, she turned to leave and found herself face to face with Professor Xavier.

"He'll be all right, Kitty," he said, "you don't have to worry. After he gets some rest, he'll be as good as new."

"That's not what I'm worried about, Professor," she responded, "last time this happened, he woke up having nightmares about mis-teleporting for a week. I'm just worried that… well… I dunno… you know?"

Xavier nodded, a slight smile on his face. "Yes, I know. Don't worry, I'm seeing to that right now. He'll sleep just fine. And I suggest you do the same. That teleport took a toll on you as well."

Casting a glance at the closed door to Kurt's room, Kitty nodded, then headed off to her own room, suddenly feeling quite tired herself.

Xavier, for his part, wheeled himself into the study and settled into a meditative state, allowing the turbulent readings he was receiving from Kurt to fade into the back of his mind a bit.

"And to think," he mused to himself, "he used to frighten her not too long ago."

* * *

 

"You gonna drink that?"

The question had come from Evan, as it usually did. He was pointing to Kitty's unopened carton of milk. Even as he did, he tossed another, empty one into a the garbage can not far away. There was a whole pile of the cartons in the can already.  
Kitty rolled her eyes and pushed the carton toward him. Evan opened it and chugged it without even breathing. When he was finished with that, he began eyeing Rogue's carton and she shielded it from his grasp. Evan gave up and turned back to Kitty.  
"So, I hear you and Kurt had an adventure yesterday."

"Yeah," Kitty responded, "we were playing basketball with a coupla closed-minded morons and Kurt's holo went totally on the fritz again. That thing is a real pain, sometimes, you know?"

"Man, I hear ya'. Seems the thing wigs out every other day."

Rogue finished her drink and joined in on the conversation. "It's really dangerous, is what it is. If anyone sees what Kurt really looks like… POW… he'll get smeared."

Kitty sat back and considered for a moment. "I wonder if there's a way to boost the holo's gain and give it, like, a bigger power source or something."

There was a crash and a sudden commotion from the other end of the cafeteria and all three turned to find out what had caused it. A rather irate looking Lance Alvers was half covered in soda and his tray of lunch was in ruins on the floor. From the looks of things, he and Scott had run into each other near the crowded lunch line and they were now staring each other down. Jean and Kurt were with Scott and likewise with Lance were Toad and Blob.

"What's the deal, Alvers, I said I'd get you another one!" Scott fired in Avalanche's direction.

"You did that on purpose, Sommers," Lance fired back, picking up the tray from the floor and wielding it like a bludgeon.

"This isn't good," Rogue stated, making her way over to the group with Evan and Kitty in tow.

"Scott, knock it off!" Jean pleaded, grabbing Scott's hand and trying to pull it back. But Lance had thrown the tray at them, stamping his foot down. As though in coincidence, a slight rumbling of the Earth occurred. Jean deflected the tray, ever so slightly so as to not show off her talent to the growing crowd.

On impulse, Kitty found herself standing in between the two sides and she was joined shortly by Kurt.

"Like, knock it off, you two! It was an accident, okay?"

"Calm down, already!" Kurt agreed.

And suddenly, as though the world itself had ordered chaos to consume the scene, a blazing white light flooded the room and a horrible scream shot through the air. Everyone covered their ears and looked away from the light, which had formed itself into a bright coalescence just above Kurt, Kitty and the rest.

The entire room erupted into chaos and people scattered everywhere, trying to get out of the room in a giant stampede.  
Kitty felt her ears pop and a wind began blowing toward the light, picking up larger and larger items as it increased in intensity. The doors to the cafeteria slammed closed and blocked the way of the retreating masses.

"What's going on?" Evan shouted over the din.

"You mean you guys don't know either?" Toad shouted back.

The wind picked up some more and Kurt went down to all fours, using his talent to stick to the floor the same way he stuck to walls. The others all found something to grab on to; a post here, a counter there.

But Kitty found her weight leave her. She began to float off the ground and felt a three-fingered hand grab hold of her wrist. She grabbed hold of the one who had grabbed her, finding it to be Kurt as her hand covered his watch.

"Kitty! Don't let go!" He squinted up at her, trying to see her though the light just beyond.

"Just hold on to the ground!" she responded, even as she felt their grips slipping. She almost lost her grip entirely and grabbed on to the first thing she touched. Unfortunately, it was Kurt's watch. The wristband broke apart and the sudden jerk made Kurt lose his grip as well. That instant was all it took and Kitty found herself floating upward. Soon, she was engulfed in white hot light…

* * *

 

What seemed like ages later, she opened her eyes, feeling a bruise forming on her backside and a steady drip-drip on her face. It was dark, quiet, and smelled of something she couldn't describe, it was so horrible. Slowly, rubbing her aching back, she sat up and looked around. The place was dirty, dank, and half destroyed.

"Where in the world am I?" She wondered, rubbing her head with her other hand. She found the remains of Kurt's watch in it.

"So, you're awake, huh?" came a voice from the darkness. Kitty looked around again and she caught site of two green, glowing eyes staring straight at her. A small, orange tabby cat came into what little light there was and approached her. "Are you okay, lady?"

Kitty blinked a few times. "I musta hit my head, or something. I coulda sworn you just talked, little guy."

"Don't call me little guy, I hate that!" The cat snapped back at her. "And I did talk." Then, something miraculous happened. The tabby grew, changed and transformed until sitting in front of Kitty was a slightly dirty brown-haired young boy of about ten. "The name's Lycanthrope."

Kitty found herself gaping. "Are… are you a Mutant?"

"Yep! Just like you!"

"How did you…?"

"You slid right through the ceiling," Lycanthrope answered, pointing skyward, "without even moving a grain of sand. So, I guess you can walk through walls?"

"Y-yeah… I'm Kitty Pr-"

"Shh! No names on the surface, remember? They'll find you, that way! What's your Mutant name?"

"Sh… Shadowcat, but like, why can't I tell you-"

"Hey! You in there!" came a voice from outside the ruined building.

"Uh oh!" Lycanthrope exclaimed, grabbing Kitty's hand. "We gotta get out of here! It's the search parties! C'mon!" He changed form once again, turning into a black horse and he got underneath Kitty, sliding her onto his back. He broke out of a small opening in the ruined wall and was about to break into a gallop when lights shown down on them from several different directions.

"Hold it, monsters!"

"Monsters!?" Kitty exclaimed.

"This is very bad!" Lycanthrope growled.

Kitty squinted past the lights and she was agape once again. There appeared to be a whole group of soldiers, all of them pointing weapons at them. Her mind raced, wondering what to do.

However, several fireballs rained down upon the scene, suddenly, taking out all the lights and cutting off most of the soldiers from Kitty and Lycanthrope with a wall of fire. Three figures appeared in this new light and faced down the soldiers, some of which had opened fire. The figure in the lead turned back to Kitty and Lycanthrope, one white eye, breaking through the darkness of his silhouette and reflecting the light.

"Lycanthrope! Get to point x-ray! We'll meet you there!"

"Gotcha!" Lycanthrope answered, breaking into a gallop and changing form again, right under Kitty. This time, he took the form of a very large bird and took flight. Kitty looked down and saw the chaos that was ensuing below. Fire was mixing with ice, creating steam that covered the area. She didn't get to see what happened to the three who had helped them as Lycanthrope dove back behind some other buildings and out of sight of the fight. He let Kitty off and changed back to his boy form, then approached a manhole cover which he lifted off and motioned Kitty into.

"But what about-?"

"Just get in!"

Kitty complied and climbed down into the hole, followed by Lycanthrope. When she reached the bottom she stopped and let her new friend lead the way down the rather smelly sewer.

"Where are we going?" Kitty asked.

"X-ray. We'll meet up with the others there."

"But how are they going to get out?"

"They've got their ways."

They traveled down the tunnel for a few blocks or so until a small orange light appeared and a lady's voice called to them. "Lycanthrope! Over here!"

"Fire Bomber! About time!"

"He's really peeved at you this time," another voice came, a male one.

"Jack! Save it!" came a third.

Lycanthrope and Kitty approached them. The small fireball was being held in the hand of the lady who had called out to them. She was a not all that unattractive young lady of about Kitty's age with short blonde hair bleached white in streaks. She was wearing what appeared to be a body suit augmented in places with pieces of colored metal serving as armor. The light of her fireball cast itself on the young man next to her. He was perhaps a few years older and similarly dressed, but for the theme of blue instead of red.

There was a third figure, resting against the wall behind them. The light didn't quite reach him and Kitty couldn't make out what he looked like. He turned to look straight at Lycanthrope, one white eye catching the light.

"I told you to stay away from there, today!"

"I didn't mean to go there," Lycanthrope answered, "but I saw her-"

"Tell me later," the figure said, standing, "let's get moving." He started forward into the tunnel, but stumbled. Jack was next to him quickly, moving to help him. "K! you all right? That wasn't too far, was it?"

"I'm fine! Let's move before zey track us!"

German…

Kitty hadn't noticed his accent before, but now she did… and it was German.

Silently, the group moved further into the tunnels, winding this way and that through them, climbing ladders, some up, some down. Finally, they arrived at a small pile of things. Jack and Lycanthrope moved aside a few pieces of the junk, revealing a well lit hole leading into another room. Jack, Fire Bomber, and the third figure climbed down into it and Lycanthrope motioned Kitty to follow.

"Go on, I'll close it up."

Kitty nodded and climbed into the hole, sliding down the small shaft and coming to a stop on the floor of a well-lit, well-populated room. A hand reached out to help her up…

… a yellow gloved, three fingered one.

"Oh, Kurt! Thank god it's-"

She broke off as she stood up and looked her helper in the face, expecting to see a familiar one, but seeing someone almost completely different.

It was Kurt Wagner… but not the one she knew.

She pulled back, gasping. She looked her friend up and down, seeing a completely different person than the one she had seen only a half an hour earlier. He was older, more muscled, and had a few scars here and there on his arms. Like Jack and Fire Bomber, he too wore his share of armor, colored black, over a modified version of his X-men uniform. His hair was longer, pulled back into a pony tail but for two locks that framed either side of his face. There was a black eye patch over his left eye and Kitty could only guess what had happened that he needed it.

"Kurt?" she ventured. "Is… is it you?"

He looked at her with his one good eye for several silent moments, seemingly taken off guard himself. Suddenly, he turned away and started to head off into another room.

"So," he said, "you did fall through ze Chrono Hole. Just like Forge thought." He paused and just before the doorway leading into the next room. "Everyone, zis is Kitty Pryde, the Shadowcat." And with nothing further he left, leaving a group of murmurs behind as the whole room started whispering to each other.


	2. Stubborn

"Whoa!" Lycanthrope breathed from behind Kitty. "You're that Shadowcat? You're Kitty Pryde and you didn't tell me?"

Kitty whirled on him. "Like, you never gave me a chance! Where is this, anyway?"

A hand rested on her shoulder and she found it to be Fire Bomber's. "We're in the compound of the Morlocks. Fifteen years have passed since your time."

"Fifteen years!?"

"S'right, babe," Jack answered from his place, leaning against the wall, "you landed yourself right smack in the middle of the Terra-Mutant wars."

"Whoa wait," Kitty demanded, holding up her hands, "you're telling me I traveled fifteen years into the future? So, like… what happened? The place is a mess. And who are all of you?"

"Mylene Jenius," Fire Bomber answered, "up top they call me Fire Bomber, for obvious reasons." She held out her hand and another small fireball appeared in it.

"Jack Samui. They call me Blizzard."

"And you? What's your real name?" Kitty asked of Lycanthrope.

"Just Lycanthrope. I don't have any other name. Nightcrawler found me and rescued me when I was a little kid. They say that's how he lost his eye."

"Hold up a second!" Kitty demanded. "So, like, I'm in the future, Mutants are fighting against normals, and everything's gone to hell?"

"In a nutshell… yeah," Jack answered.

"Okay… so… like, what happened?"

Jack, Mylene, and Lycanthrope all shifted uncomfortably and Jack even cleared his throat. None of them continued their eye contact with her and none of them said anything.

"I walk through walls, not read minds," Kitty reminded them.

"Well, ya' see," Jack ventured, "it's not really our place…"

Kitty sighed, eyeing them dubiously. "Like, enough with the twenty questions all ready. I'm going to get some answers." She turned on her heel and headed for the doorway that Nightcrawler had gone through earlier.

"I don't think you wanna-" Lycanthrope began.

"Forget it, Curly," Kitty shot over her shoulder, "I'm getting the straight poop around here." She continued on through the doorway, pushing aside the tattered piece of cloth that hung over it, and found herself in a darkened room. "Kurt?"

One white eye appeared out of the black and looked at her, silently. It sent shivers up and down Kitty's spine in waves. The look in it was so hard, so cold. It was not her Kurt, not in the slightest. Gone were the kind flashes, gone were the joking sparkles.

"Vhat is it?" he asked, harshly.

"Why I'm fine. Glad to be back, thank you."

Kurt's one eye looked away from her and he snorted once. "It's not fun and games any more, Shadowcat."

"Yeah, I like, gathered that from the waves of fear you seem to send through all those people out there."

"I don't send fear through zem. Constantly being hunted does that just fine with no help from me."

"Okay, so that explains them, but not you."

He looked at her again and Kitty found that she actually had to fight down the impulse to run from her best friend.

"They might find this normal for you," she said, "but I like, know you better than that. It wasn't just fifteen years that changed you."

Kitty's eyes were just now adjusting to the dim light and she could see him stand up. He took a few steps toward her and looked down with that ever-chilling eye. "I became ze demon zat people called me. Zat's all I could do after what I saw! And you have no right to be judgmental."

"No, I can't. Not until someone, like, gives me the whole story."

He turned away from her again and she could hear him growl, slightly. "Vhat I saw… was the death of everything. It started when ze Chrono Hole first opened up and swallowed you up in ze middle of ze High School Cafeteria, and my holo vith you. I was left in the middle of a crowd, looking like… a demon. It didn't take long for word to get out. Scott, ze others, and I almost got killed just getting out of ze school. And we never were able to find you.

"Zat broke the secret of the Xavier Institute vide open. Everyone knew we vere all Mutants. There was a panic… and zen… someone decided that the Chrono Hole which swallowed you up vas an act of God. Of God! People decided that Mutants were demons. And the Xavier Institute was the first place zey hit. Ze Professor, Jean, Scott, Rogue, Spyke, Storm, all of them vere taken out one by one. Logan and I did the only thing ve could; ve ran.

"They had tracked down Mystique and her bunch, too. Logan and I came across Toad. He was ze only one of them to survive. Ze three of us went underground, hiding, always moving, helping other Mutants we came across. We found Blizzard like zat. Soon, we heard of a concentration camp near Chicago and once ve had enough people, we vent to free zose who vere zere. We vere successful, zat's vere I found Fire Bomber… but Logan and Toad had to hold ze line vile the rest of us escaped. No one's seen zem since.

"I vas left… I vas the only one left… because of an 'act of God' that everyone now knows vas nothing more zan a time displacement. But, zere's no way to stop any of zis any more. It's zem or us!

"Get it now?"

Kitty crossed her arms over her chest. "No."

"Vhat?"

"I said I don't get it," she stated, "What you're talking about is a war between Mutants and normals. Professor Xavier wouldn't allow that."

Nightcrawler glared at her and lunged, hitting the wall aside of Kitty's head with a fist.

"And he's dead because he wouldn't fight back!"

Kitty started, backing into the wall as far as she could without actually falling through it. She clenched her eyes shut, not wanting to look into Kurt's one white eye, blazing with fury. She looked away and opened her eyes again when it was apparent that he wasn't going to go off on a further tirade. She found herself looking at his shaking fist against the wall. Slowly, he took it away from the wall, looking at it as if angry with it. He turned away and started for the doorway.

"You can't understand right now. But you vill, soon. It is good zat you are back. If only ve hadn't missed our chance together."

"Wait, what's that mean?"

He paused at the doorway and cast a sad glance back at her. "Just… never mind."

"Kurt, wait," Kitty called just before he left. She held back before continuing. "How'd… you lose your eye?"

Nightcrawler stopped and cast a glance back at her before leaving.

Kitty, understandably rattled, took a moment to compose herself before leaving as well. She went back out into the commons area where everyone else was still milling about. She looked around for Kurt, but found him gone. Instead, Jack was approaching her.

"Wow, lady! I dunno what you said to him but-"

"Oh, drop it already," Kitty snapped back, "where'd he go?"

"Got me… he does that every now and then, just goes off on his own. He can take care of himself. In the meantime… someone's gotta show you around the digs. C'mon. I gotta go see Forge anyway."

"Forge? He's still around?"

"Yeah. You could say he's our tech support."

* * *

 

Forge had his own space set aside in the Morlocks' compound. Naturally, it was cluttered, messy, and the typical surroundings of an inventor at work. Pieces of cannibalized machinery were strewn everywhere, with no particular order seemingly in mind.

Jack led Kitty into this chaotic realm and stood there for a moment, looking around. He sighed, shook his head, then called to the open air.

"Hey, Forge!"

A head popped out from behind the cluttered table and looked at them. Forge had greyed a little bit and had put on a beard, but there was still that somewhat whimsical look in his eye that all imaginative people had. In one hand was some circuit board of some kind or another and he was using the tools inherent in his other arm to pick away at it and adjust it. He stopped his work when he caught sight of Kitty.

"It's Shadowcat!" he exclaimed, putting down his work. "I was right! So, where'd she turn up, Jack?"

"Lycanthrope found her up top."

Forge circled around Kitty once, looking her over. "Wow! She looks just the same as she did fifteen years ago! Then it really was the Chrono Hole all along!"

Kitty made a sour face. "What am I, like a guinea pig or something?"

Forge whapped himself upside the head, then extended a hand to Kitty. "Sorry, I guess I don't get out much. Good to have you back, Kitty."

Kitty took Forge's hand, glad for a warm welcome from someone she knew before. A friendly, familiar face. "I just wish everyone around here was as glad as you are."

"Kurt?"

"Yeah. Forge, what happened to him? He won't tell me everything."

Forge and Jack exchanged glances and Kitty looked from one to the other in silence.

"He's fighting a war," Jack finally stated, "K's always been like that, ever since I first met him. He got worse when we lost Wolverine and Toad, but…"

"It's not just that," Kitty stated, "just that isn't enough to change Kurt this much. There's still stuff that I don't know… like how'd he lose his eye?"

"It's not something we talk about much, least of all him," Forge began.

"Forge!" Jack exclaimed.

"Forget about it Jack. She deserves to know. The rest of us oldies know." Forge cleared off a small chair and led Kitty to it to sit. He leaned against the table and Jack crossed his arms, making a disapproving face. "You have to understand, Kitty. He has been fighting a war. He's leading us all in a war he knows we can never win, that everyone knows we can never win. He's the only reason any of us are even still alive right now. To do that, he had to become someone else. Since that last day at the Xavier Institute, I've only seen him have four emotions. He's satisfied when something goes our way for a change. He doesn't want to admit it, but you can see it in his eyes when he looks at all of us, but he loves us all and is afraid we'll all die, one by one, alone. It's his greatest fear. The rest of the time, he's just angry. He has to be to keep going and to keep us all going. It's all he can be."

"But that doesn't explain what happened to his eye."

Jack shifted uncomfortably and uncrossed his arms. Seemingly to distract himself, he picked up the nearest piece of clutter to inspect, even though it was evident that he had no idea what it was or what it did.

Forge continued. "I said he's the only reason we're all still here today. But you really don't have any idea how true it is. It happened about seven years ago, now. We had just found Lycanthrope. He'd been abandoned by his parents, either because he was a Mutant or because his parents were killed, we don't know which. Lycanthrope was just a baby and Mylene and Jack went up top to find him some suitable food. Soon, word came back to us that they were in trouble, they'd been found. Kurt teleported right there, he always does things like that. There was a fight and Jack and Mylene managed to get away, but Kurt didn't come back. After a couple of days, we learned that he'd been caught. Everyone went up top to see what we could find. He wouldn't have liked that we did it, but we didn't care."

"About three weeks after that," Jack broke in, continuing, "I found out where he was being held. We put together a rescue plan and stormed the place. When we finally were able to get him out, it had been almost a month. We found him in a dark cell, drugged half way to oblivion, beaten, starved, and missing an eye. Apparently, they had tried to get our location out of him. He was mumbling incoherently for days after that about how he wouldn't tell anyone anything, no matter what."

"It was amazing," Forge picked up the story again, "he was so out of it he couldn't tell reality from illusion and he still managed to keep this place a secret. And it was his anger that enabled him to do it, Kitty. Because of his anger, we were never attacked here and they never found us."

"But even now he won't talk about it," stated Jack, "what we know is the extent of what anyone knows. To this day, we don't know what, exactly, they did to him in there to try to get him to talk."

Kitty found herself looking to the ground, not even noticing the pieces of invention strewn everywhere. Her vision was blurred with tears that she could no longer hold back. This story… it was the final straw. She couldn't hold back what had grown since she'd first seen what Kurt looked like now. It flowed out in a gush of tears.

"And all… all of this is because I disappeared fifteen years ago," she mumbled through her tears.

Forge sighed. "It was just the catalyst. All of this was inevitable, since the world wasn't ready to know we existed. Mass hysteria is all that came and this insanity is the result. You had nothing to do with it, Kitty."

"Jack!" Cried a voice from the doorway. Mylene appeared there, catching her breath as if having run there. "It's Lycanthrope! He's in trouble! K's on the warpath! We're trying to talk him out of going up there on a rampage, but it's not working! We need you back in the commons!"

Mylene turned right back around and went back to way she'd come. Jack, Forge, and Kitty were hot on her heels and came running into the commons area. Nightcrawler was there surrounded by almost everyone in the compound and he did not look happy.

"Don't you understand!?" Kurt thundered. "He's going to get caught or even killed! Somevone has to go up zere and find him!"

"What happened?" Kitty asked.

"Lycanthrope vent up top to take out a veapons store!" Kurt snapped. "He's trying to make up for screwing up zis afternoon! I could pound him!"

Kitty put a hand over one of Kurt's fists and pulled it down, looking into his one eye pleadingly. "But just going up there is only going to get you killed. Or caught… like the last time… you could-"

Kurt pushed her hand away and whirled on Jack, Forge, and Mylene. "You told her!"

Forge stepped forward, daring to match Kurt's anger with a look of his own. "She deserved to know, Kurt, and you know that!"

Nightcrawler let out a blare of anger, causing everyone to take a step back from him. "Damn you! I'll deal vith zis later! All of you, stay here! And I mean it!"

And suddenly, smoke and brimstone filled the air as Nightcrawler teleported out of existence right in front of their eyes. There was silence in the room for several moments before Mylene's clenched fist turned into a fire ball.

"Damn it!" she swore. "Has he lost his mind or something? Jack, what do we do?"

Jack considered for a moment. "Well, obviously, we can't let him go it alone. He'll get killed, or worse! We're going up there."

"He'll be pissed as hell," Forge stated.

"Let him be," Jack shot back, "Mylene, where's that weapons storage?"

"It's on the south side of the old Francisco Building, near point Bravo."

"Let's get going, then. Forge, stay here and hold the fort. Fire Bomber, you're with me."

Jack and Mylene were just about to head up the entry chute when Kitty spoke up, stopping them.

"I want to go with you."

"Kitty," Jack snapped back at her, "we don't have time to-"

"Listen. You're ice, she's fire, I'm quiet. I can help get in and out if you need it. Please?"

Jack grunted his disapproval, then reached on to a nearby shelf and handed Kitty a small package. "Put this on, then, and do it on the way. And remember to call us by our nick's up there."

Kitty nodded and the three of them exited the compound.

* * *

 

They managed to make their way silently above ground to the place that Fire Bomber had described. She and Blizzard led the way, calling on Shadowcat's talents every now and then to help them evade groups of guards and soldiers. They came to a stop just around the corner from the weapons store.

Shadowcat, now clad in an outfit of black and armor of a dark green peeked her head around the corner to look, then came right back to face Blizzard and Fire Bomber.

"No sign of Nightcrawler or Lycanthrope. But there's about ten soldiers out there."

Blizzard nodded. "Okay, they must both be inside. Shadowcat, you hang back while Fire Bomber and I take out the soldiers. When we signal you, it'll be clear enough that you can make it to the door to the place. Don't worry, we'll cover you, just get there as fast as you can. Then you can get us into the store and we can find Nightcrawler and Lycanthrope. Got it?"  
Shadowcat and Fire Bomber both nodded their assent and understanding.

"Okay then, Fire Bomber. You and me, at the count. One… two… three!"

Fire and ice were suddenly unleashed on the unsuspecting soldiers in one great and terrifying volley. Fire Bomber tossed fireballs every which way she could and Blizzard did likewise with giant balls of hail and blasts of cold that froze the soldiers in their places. Frantically, the soldiers fired back with their rifles, but the confusion and the steam rising from Blizzard and Fire Bomber's combined attack threw every shot off its mark.

In the midst of all of this, the entire building suddenly blew, sending a concussion wave out in all directions and knocking everyone off their feet. Fire quickly spread to nearby buildings and the soldiers scrambled away. Fire Bomber and Blizzard regained their feet, having been thrown near to where Shadowcat had been. The three of them looked at the burning building in horror.

"Nightcrawler!" Shadowcat exclaimed.

"He and Lycanthrope were still in there!" Fire Bomber agreed in kind.

A shadow blinked into existence in front of their eyes, an expanding puff of smoke encircling it. It came toward them and resolved itself into two forms. Nightcrawler, slowly walking toward them, carrying an unconscious Lycanthrope in his arms. Nightcrawler took each step very carefully, as though afraid that the world would tip under him and send him toppling. As Shadowcat, Fire bomber, and Blizzard approached, they found out why. The right side of Nightcrawler's head was covered in his own blood. His eye wandering almost aimlessly and trying very hard to focus on them, he passed Lycanthrope off to Blizzard, then allowed his legs to collapse under him. Shadowcat managed to catch him before he hit the ground and got under his shoulder.

"Shadowcat, can you carry him?" Blizzard asked over the growing blare of sirens. She nodded back to him. "Okay. Fire Bomber, take the lead. Let's get back."

In that way, they silently trudged off back to the Morlocks' compound.


	3. Interlude

There had been a number of alarmed gasps from the group when they returned to the commons. Murmurs started up, of course, some of them wondering what they should do next, now that Nightcrawler was out of commission. Others said that they would wait patiently for him to recover and until then Jack would be in charge. This met with general approval, but it didn't wipe away the fear the Morlocks had for their leader.

Forge and Blizzard had taken Lycanthrope elsewhere to be cared for. It turned out that he had been shot with a tranquilizer shortly after getting into the weapons storage, so he wouldn't be out for more than a few hours. Nightcrawler was their real concern.

Kitty and Mylene took him to his dark, little room and managed to find a pillow to go under his head. They cleaned up his head wound as best they could and put a bandage over it. Every once in a while, Kurt would let out a soft moan and flinch away from them in pain.

"So, like, what do we do now?" Kitty asked as Mylene finished covering the wound.

"I don't know," Mylene admitted, "god help me, Shadowcat, I don't know what to do. I don't even know what happened. I don't even know why he got hurt. What can I do?"

Kitty put a hand on Mylene's shoulder. "Hey, it's okay, Mylene, don't worry. He was probably just hit in the head when the building blew. He'll be just fine when he wakes up." She tried her best to give a laughing smile. "You know, like, grouchy as ever."

Mylene gave a short, sharp chuckle through her forming tears. "Yeah, I'm sure he'll be pissed as hell we went after him, too." She sighed and looked back down at Kurt whose chest was now rising and falling peacefully in sleep. "The most damnable part of this is that this is the most peaceful I've ever seen him. He's gotta get hurt in order to let go for a few hours." She looked back up at Kitty. "You knew him before the Terra-Mutant war. What was he like before he was angry at everything and scared of the world?"

"Well, I dunno 'bout the angry at everything part," said Kitty, "but, he was always pretty scared of the world. Because of how he looked. Oh sure, if he had his holo, everything was fine. He was the biggest joker, almost didn't know when to quit sometimes. But when that thing went out, he'd just do, like, this complete 180, you know? Suddenly, he was scared of everyone, sometimes even us."

"The X-men?"

Kitty nodded and looked down at Kurt, still perfectly asleep. "But even then," she said, brushing away a stray lock of his blue hair, "he never stopped trying. I wasn't any help either. I mean, the first time we met, I nearly ran screaming and I think it really hurt him. It took him getting himself hurt then, too, for me to come around and see that he really was only Human, like all of us. No, Mylene, he's not angry… he's scared and frustrated… and he knows there's nothing he can do to change that."

"Excuse me," came a tiny voice from the doorway. Kitty and Mylene looked up to find a little girl of maybe six or seven looking in at them. "Is Nightcrawler hurt?"

"Angela," Mylene exclaimed, standing and going over to the little girl, "you shouldn't be here. Where's your mom and dad?"

"They're sleeping. I snuck out."

Mylene squatted down next to the little girl and put her hands on her shoulders. "You shouldn't sneak out like that. You should always ask if it's okay first, you know that."

Angela nodded, tears suddenly coming to her eyes. "Is Nightcrawler going to be okay?"

Mylene gathered the little girl up in a hug. "Of course, of course he is. He just got a bump on the head, that's all. He'll be just fine."

"Can I stay here until he's done sleeping?"

"All right, that's fine, as long as it's okay with your mom and dad. Listen. See that lady over there." Mylene pointed to Kitty. "Her name's Kitty and she's new here. She's waiting for Kurt to wake up, too. I want you to stay here and listen to Kitty like you would listen to me while I go and make sure it's okay that you're here, okay?"

Angela nodded up at Mylene, then scurried over to sit next to Kitty as Mylene left to find Angela's parents. She plopped down on the floor and let her tears flow. Kitty wasn't entirely certain what to do, so she decided to try her skill at child care.  
"Hi, my name's Kitty. What's yours?"

"I'm Angela. Do you know Nightcrawler?"

"Yes, I do. He's a very old friend of mine from a long time ago."

Angela looked up at Kitty with a suspicious face. "But you're not that old." Kitty giggled and patted Angela's head. "Do you have special powers, too?" Angela asked.

Kitty smiled. "Wanna see something really cool?" Angela nodded, excitedly, so Kitty reached over and grabbed the first thing that came to hand, an old book. She held it up and knocked on it, then put her hand right through it using her powers. Angela's eyes went wide with excitement.

"Wanna see what I can do?" the little girl asked, sliding closer to the still unconscious Kurt. "Mamma says it's a special gift that I can share with a lot of people and use to help them. Watch!" She placed a hand over the bandage on the side of Kurt's head. Kitty was about to protest and scold Angela, but was interrupted when the little girl's hand started glowing an ethereal white. She held her hand like that for a moment, then the white faded and she sat back down again. "It makes me sleepy, though," Angela explained, just before yawning.

Somewhat alarmed, Kitty swiftly and carefully took the bandage off of Kurt's temple and looked at the wound. She only found, however, that the wound was completely gone. She was about to ask how Angela had done it, but was interrupted again by another voice at the doorway.

"Angela Serena!"

Apparently, it was the girl's mother. Mylene was just behind her.

"She's got powers already?" Mylene puzzled as Angela's mother hurried over to her and gathered her up.

"What have I told you about using your powers around strangers?"

"I'm not supposed to. But I wanted to help Nightcrawler, momma. He's not a stranger."

"Lisa," Mylene directed at the mother, "why'd you keep this from everyone? Angela has a wonderful gift. Nothing to be ashamed of."

"It's not that we're ashamed of it," Lisa answered, "Rick and I… we… we were afraid Angela would be used as a first aid kit, a tool. She can't take that, not at her age."

"Lisa, we would never have let that happen, you know that. If anything happened to Angela, we'd never forgive ourselves. But, we'll keep this a secret for now."

Lisa nodded and gave her thanks to Mylene for finding her and bringing her to Angela. She left, a peacefully sleeping little girl resting on her shoulder.

Mylene sighed and joined Kitty back on the floor, also looking at the place where Kurt's wound had been. "That's amazing. No matter how many times I see a kid come into blossom as a Mutant, it never ceases to amaze me." Mylene, too, let out a yawn.

"You, like, need some sleep?" Kitty asked. "I can keep an eye on him, why don't you go rest for a while."

Mylene nodded. "When you make sense, you make sense. I'll come back in four hours and switch places with you."

And with that, Mylene left, too, leaving Kitty alone in the dark room, silent save for Kurt's breathing.

She wasn't sure when she had let go and started crying, but by the time she realized she had, Kitty's hands were covered in warm, salty tears. She studied them, wondering what they were for. Were they for Kurt? Were they for the others who seemed to so depend on him? Or were they for herself, in an unknown world where everything was made of pure terror?

* * *

 

  
It was either hours or minutes later, she didn't know which, that Kurt's hand reached out and covered hers, paying no mind to the wet tears there. He held tightly in a grip as if he were going to blow away if he let go.

Kitty looked up and found Kurt awake, partially sitting up, looking at her with his one eye, but not with anger. It seemed to plead with her, his terror threatening to overwhelm him. Kitty wiped her own eyes on her sleeve, not letting go of Kurt's hand. With her one free hand, she knocked on the floor three times, one long, two short.

He sat up all the way, wordlessly looking her in the eye with a gaze that spoke volumes.

"It's safe," she whispered, "let it go."

Still, always, holding Kitty's hand, Kurt laid back down again and turned on to his side.

And the flood gate opened. Kurt Wagner, now almost thirty years old and with the weight of an entire losing war on his shoulders, wept as though he were still a fifteen year old boy. And all Kitty could do, all she knew she needed to do, was be with him and not tell a soul he had broken down. He needed her to be there and she needed him to let go. And that was all.  
It went for almost an hour before Kurt had cried everything he had. Kitty had ended up cradling his head in her lap, gently petting the side of his head as he finally calmed down and managed to compose himself.

It was long after he had shed his last tear that he spoke. "How long?"

"You were out ten, maybe eleven hours."

"Lycanthrope?"

"He's fine. It was just a tranquilizer. He woke up just a couple of hours after we got back."

"You vent out after me. Even after I told you zree to stay here vith ze others."

"Jack wasn't about to just stand by and let you like go up there alone. And I wasn't going to let you get caught again."

Kurt looked away from Kitty, his one eye showing immense pain at the memory of something he refused to share with anyone. "So, zey told you, zen?"

"About seven years ago? Yeah, as much as they knew. But even they don't know what happened to you in there. Why, Kurt? Why haven't you talked about it?"

"Because," Kurt said struggling to stand on wobbly legs, "it is not somezing zat anyone should have to know." He very nearly toppled over but put a hand out against the wall to steady himself. Kitty was up right next to him in an instant.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"I need to see zem."

"You need to rest. Surely any yelling at Jack, Mylene, and Lycanthrope that you wanna do can, like, wait a while."

"I don't vant to yell at zem, I vant to tear zeir heads off."

"Boy… they were right… you are perpetually pissed."

He shot her a glare, but it dissolved when he caught sight of the battle outfit Jack had given her just before their sortie.

  
"Vhat are you vearing?"

Kitty looked down having forgotten the battle suit. "Oh yeah, this. I guess I'm, like, one of you guys, now."

Kurt let out a frustrated moan, looking skyward. "No vay I can talk you out of it?"

Kitty looked him straight in the eye, a soft smile on her face. "Kurt Wagner, I knew you were in there somewhere."


	4. Looking Glasses and Flying Fists

"I'm telling you, there's gonna be another one in about two minutes!" Forge's voice echoed out of the doorway to his tiny, disheveled lab. "We gotta warn everyone so they don't freak out this time!"

"Like the last time we warned them and everyone freaked out for no reason?" Mylene bit back at him.

Kurt made his way to Forge's lab, Kitty following close at hand to make sure that he didn't fall over or something equally desirable. When he reached the door frame, he leaned on it, partly to steady himself and partly to hide the fact that he needed to. Kitty was just behind him, looking in at the conversation going on inside.

"Jack," said Forge, "you know that I know what I'm talking about. Talk some sense into her."

"Vhat's going on here?" Kurt asked of the trio.

"Nightcrawler!" all three exclaimed at once.

"Forge?" Kurt asked.

"Another space-time reality distortion is coming our way. The probability is next to certain."

"Um… like, excuse me," Kitty put in.

"Sure, Forge, just like last time," Mylene continued, then turned to Kurt, "the last thing we need right now is a panic."

"K, will you talk some sense into the both of them?" Jack chimed up, sourly.

"Like… um… hello?" Kitty once again interjected.

But it was no use, Kurt stood there stupidly as the three of them, Jack, Mylene, and Forge, all broke down into a free-for-all shouting match.

Suddenly, everyone stopped. Kitty was perplexed. She stood there watching them all, each one seemingly staring off into space. She was about to give Kurt a nudge, when they all came out of whatever trance they were in, moaning and holding their heads.

"See?" Forge directed at Mylene. "I told ya'."

Kurt took his chance to act his usual, cheery self. "Why vasn't I told about zis!?" he snapped at the three of them, mainly at Jack.

Jack and Mylene were staring at each other as though some giant weight had just been dropped on their shoulders.

"D… did you see what I saw?" Jack asked her.

"Y… yeah…" Mylene stammered back, "you and I… we had a…"

Kitty's face twisted into a rather irate looking scowl. "Hey!" she exclaimed, finally commanding everyone's attention. "Like, what the heck are you guys talking about? What just happened?"

While everyone looked at her as if she'd just sprouted horns, Forge seemed to take a particular interest in her reaction. He rushed over to a small pile of seemingly inane junk, dug around for a bit, and pulled out some small instrument. He rushed back over to Kitty and waved it in front of her.

"Tell me what you saw," he said.

"You were all arguing and then, like, everything just stopped and you guys all stared off into thin air."

"So, you didn't see anything… unusual?"

"What should I have seen?"

"Hmm," was Forge's reply. He brought the instrument up closer to his face and fiddled with it a bit. "Aha!" he finally exclaimed. "Something else I was right about!"

"Do you ever get tired of hearing yourself talk?" Mylene bit at him before Kurt could send a scowl her way.

"Vhat is it, Forge?" Kurt asked.

"She doesn't fully exist in our space-time."

"And, just, like, what does that mean?" Kitty asked.

"It means you're not affected by the space-time reality distortions," Forge blurted out, extremely excited.

Kitty blinked at him several times. "Maybe you should, like, start at the beginning?"

There was suddenly a great deal of commotion and at least one voice wailing about something from the Morlocks' commons area. Mylene rolled her eyes. "Sounds like the natives are restless," she said, "I'll be back in a few."

Forge whapped himself upside the forehead as Mylene left. He dug around in another pile of invention parts and finally produced a CD ROM disk. It was another few moments of scrounging that finally produced a computer to play it on. "This is data I've been taking for the last fifteen years," he explained, calling up a file, "the exact times of each and every space-time distortion aside from the first one. Obviously, I wasn't ready for that one. Take a look."

Kitty looked over Forge's shoulder at the data only to find that fully a half of it was written in Greek characters. She sent Forge another funny look and he smiled nervously.

"Take two," he said as Kurt and Jack both sighed. "You see," he continued, "we've been having these odd interruptions in the course of time ever since you disappeared. They were hardly noticeable at first, but the interesting thing about the first one was that-"

"You vere still zere, in ze Cafeteria," Kurt interrupted, telling Kitty.

Forge nodded. "'Crawler's got it surrounded. The first one of these things was just a few minutes after you got sucked up into the Chrono Hole. As time went on, the interruptions became more and more noticeable. There were more and more things out of place and just generally different about the world."

"But it wasn't until about ten years ago that we figured it out," Jack stated, "durin' one of the damned things, I caught sight of a world where the Terra-Mutant wars never happened… an' I spotted you."

Forge put his hands on Kitty's shoulders, excitedly. "It was an alternate reality, Kitty! One where you never disappeared, setting off the Terra-Mutant wars! Where Mutants and normals were living in peace together. All because the world learned about us in the right way."

"Zis reality vas never supposed to happen," Kurt said, "and time is reflecting it. And ze key to it all is you."

"Whoa, wait!" Kitty exclaimed. "So, you're saying that if I can, like, go back to the moment I came from, none of this," she motioned around the room to indicate the general world, "will have, like, happened at all?"

"That's the theory, anyway," said Forge, "and I've been working on it as an assumption." He began to dig in his piles again.

"Oh brothah," sighed Jack, "here we go again." He crossed his arms and waited.

Forge brought another CD ROM out into the room and popped it into the computer. "I used the data I had on the space-time distortions and extrapolated what it would take to actually make a rift that we could send matter through and designed a device that could make a rift that size. I haven't been able to build it, yet, but it is possible."

"So you're saying that you might be able to send me back through?" Kitty asked.

"Bingo."

From Jack's stifled chuckling, Kitty got the feeling that he was a bit skeptical. She was hard pressed not to noticed the particularly frustrated glare Forge sent his way.

"Oh sure, laugh it up," Forge snapped at the ice thrower, "I've been right about the distortions, what's your problem with this, now?"

"Most of the distortions," Jack corrected, "you can't deny that there's a risk involved."

"Of course I don't. That'd be stupid. But I can tell you it's pretty minimal. 'Crawler, say something to him."

Kurt took his cue and sent a rather nasty glare Jack's way, causing the younger Morlock to cringe. He made his way across the room and got right up into Jack's face, despite the fact that he was a full head shorter.

"Now, K-" Jack began, backing up into the wall.

"I told you to stay down here!" Kurt practically shouted. "You disobeyed a direct order!"

Jack finally collected himself and sent a glare back Kurt's way. He pushed on his shoulder and made his way past back out into the middle of the room. "So, what'cha gonna do, K, flog me? You shouldn't have gone up there by yourself in the first place and you know it! If it weren't for the three of us, you and Lycanthrope would never have made it back!"

"Zat is beside ze point!" Kurt snapped back, turning away as though preparing to leave.

"Don't you bamf away from me!" Jack demanded, grabbing Kurt's tail. "We're not done yet!"

Several things happened, then. Kitty, who had moved next to Forge to stay out of Kurt and Jack's way, sensed Forge tighten up. He seemed to have been bored up until that point, as though the same thing had happened over and over again between Nightcrawler and Blizzard. Obviously, there was something different about it this time. Meanwhile, Kurt turned back to Jack, whipping his tail out of Jack's hand and glaring a glare that could flatten several small cities.

"Vhat did you say to me?" he said in a disturbingly calm voice.

"You heard me, 'Crawler," Jack responded in kind, grabbing hold of Kurt's left hand in lieu of his tail, "I'm sick and tired of you 'portin' away off by yourself when someone's got a point to make to you. Wolverine never did that and if you ask me, he made a better leader anyway!"

Kurt gritted his teeth and grabbed onto Jack's arm so that they were both holding on to each other. His other hand clenched into a fist. "Don't ever talk about zem like zat. You don't know anyzing about being a leader, you vet-eared, hormone ridden child!"

"Go get a shave, you blue furred, angst ridden freak!"

And they all heard Kurt do something they had never heard him do before; he growled, baring his teeth. That was right before he pulled on Jack's arm and followed through with a fist toward his midriff. Jack managed to side step the punch and tackled Kurt with his full weight, sending them both to the ground. Kurt kicked up with his feet, sending Jack over his head and crashing into the table, breaking several pieces of invention. All the while, neither one let go of the other's hand.

"This is getting, like serious!" Kitty exclaimed.

"You're telling me!" Forge agreed. "It took me a week to build that!"

"Well, what'd it do?"

"Dunno. I was contemplating pushing the button to find out."

Kitty gave him a confused look, then shook her head as if to clear it. "N-never mind that! Do something to stop them!"

Kurt and Jack were still going at it, tossing punches, blocking, dodging and generally trying to pound each other without mercy.  
"No way, Kitty-cat! I'm not getting into the middle of that!"

"Oh, fine, I'll do it!"

Resolutely, she walked over to the pair of still brawling Morlocks. They were both just pulling back a fist to throw when she stepped in between them, kicking in her phasing abilities just to be safe. Kurt's punch came to a stop just short of Kitty's face and when she looked down she found Jack's fist protruding out of her dark green chest plate. All the action stopped, finally, and both mutants looked at Kitty as if having noticed she was in the room for the first time.

"Do you mind?" Kitty sniped at Jack, tossing a look that spoke volumes over her shoulder to the ice thrower.

Slowly, laughing a nervous laugh, Jack pulled back his fist. He and Kurt let go of each others' arms and they both sat down hard on the floor, puffing for breath.

"Okay," said Kitty, "if you two are done, like, hosing down the place with testosterone, I've got a bone to pick with the both of you." She turned around to face Jack first, getting right down into his face. Startled, he backed up a bit. "You need to stop acting like all the stuff that happened in the past doesn't matter. You're his second, you're supposed to help, like, keep things together around here. So start, like, doing what's gotta be done." She turned back to Kurt next. "And you need to start acting like a leader and less like the tantrum throwing little kid I've seen since I, like, got here. Why don't you try, like, listening to people when they say you're being an idiot, for a change."

Her own little tirade finished, Kitty stalked out of the room, slamming the door shut on her way past. Forge carefully made his way around the room, avoiding Kurt and Jack and opened the door to leave. Before he exited, he cast the two of them a shrug, then followed Kitty, closing the door.

Kurt and Jack both sighed, still sitting on the floor.

"Hell hath no fury…" Jack mumbled.

"Like a voman scorned," Kurt agreed.

"Hairball."

"Brain freeze."

Kitty's head phased in through the door again and she glared at the pair of them. "I heard that," she said, then phased out again.

Kurt and Jack flinched at Kitty's sudden re-intrusion, then looked at each other and sighed.


	5. Plans, Plans, Plans

Forge hurried after Kitty, following at a safe distance, since she looked ready to take off the head of the next person to come within ten feet of her. They stalked their way right into the Commons area, which was strangely deserted. Kitty finally stopped and looked around.

"So, like, where is everyone?"

Forge was finally able, and felt safe, to catch up with her. "This usually happens right after the distortions," he told her, "most people just wanna be alone for a bit."

A small, orange tabby made its existence known by meowing up at Kitty and rubbing against her leg. She picked the cat up and started petting it. "I can believe that," she said, "I suppose it's, like, really weird. So, what'd you see?"

"Just this last time?" Forge got a bit of a wistful look on his face. "A soapbox derby. Seems I have a kid."

"Who's the lucky lady?"

Forge scratched his head. "I seem to keep missing that."

Mylene came out of one of the side corridors, carrying an armful of cans. They threatened to spill over her elbows and topple to the floor and it was obvious that she was desperately trying to keep that from happening. She made her way over to a section of shelves on the wall and puzzled a way to make some space for them. Kitty and Forge obliged, pushing some other cans aside.

"I heard yelling," Mylene said, "what happened?"

"Oh, just Jack and Kurt having an alpha-male fight," Kitty responded.

"About our next move?"

"Actually no," said Forge, "about Jack's last one and K's lack of communication, to put it in slightly more polite terms than Jack did."

"Well, it's about fraggin' time!" Mylene exclaimed. "Those two have been dancing around each other like that for five years. About time they had it out."

"They threw punches at each other," Kitty cried, exasperated, still petting the little tabby.

"Well, they _are_ guys," stated Mylene, putting the last of the cans in its place on the shelf.

* * *

 

Back in Forge's lab, things were equally quiet, but not as calm. Jack and Kurt were still both sitting on the floor, not facing one another, not looking about the room or making any sort of move. They simply sat there, staring off into their respective sections of space.

"So…" Jack finally ventured, "I guess… we've got a decision to make, huh?"

" _Ja_ ," Kurt agreed. He cleared his throat as if trying to find his voice. "So… vhat's your opinion on Forge's plan?"

Jack sighed, picking up a nut from off the floor and fiddling with it. "I think it's a long shot, K, I really do. You?"

" _Nien_ , no argument zere," Kurt said, then sighed again. "So, vhat did you see? In ze last distortion, zat is."

"Would you believe I had a kid… with Mylene, no less! Heh… fire an' ice, go fig. You?"

Kurt leaned back on his elbows, staring up at the ceiling. "Ze same zing I see every time. A normal life. I'd do anyzing to have her, you know."

"It."

" _Vas_?"

"You meant 'it,' right? You said 'her.' You meant 'it.'"

Kurt blinked a few times before answering. "Of course."

Jack flopped onto his back, also staring up at the ceiling. "Yeah, I hear ya'. I want the same thing."

"So…" Kurt ventured, "ve have a decision to make, zen."

"Yeah."

"I'll need your support," Kurt stated, finally looking over to Jack.

Jack sat up again. "Yeah… yeah…" He, too, finally made eye contact with Kurt. "Let do't, K. What the hell we gotta lose, anyway, right? Nothin' to lose, everthin' to gain."

Kurt nodded. " _Ja_."

* * *

 

"He drove Mystique's car through what!? You guys have gotta be makin' that up!"

Kitty still had the cat in her lap and a can of green beans in hand. "Girl, I just fell through a hole in time, like, yesterday," she said, half laughing, "and you think I'm making _this_ up?"

"Yeah, M," Forge agreed, digging into a can of ravioli, "Kitty and I made this story up fifteen years ago just so we could mess with ya' when she appeared out of nowhere."

"I wouldn't put it past ya'," said Mylene, stabbing her fork in Forge's general direction, then digging into her can of foodstuffs, "so how big was this Middleverse of yours, Forge?"

"Stopped just short of ze girls' locker room," Kurt's voice came from the entryway. Kitty, Forge, and Mylene all looked up to find him standing just inside the room, Jack just behind him, leaning on the doorframe.

"Hey," said Kitty, "you two done, like, tearing each other to shreds?"

"Each other?" Kurt asked, making his way over to the sitting threesome. "Yes. However…" He reached down and grabbed the tabby out of Kitty's lap, lifting it up by the scruff of its neck. "Lycanthrope."

"Woops," said the cat, "busted."

Kurt dropped Lycanthrope on to the ground. In his cat form, he was able to land feet first easily. "Human form," Kurt commanded, "now."

"Okay, okay," Lycanthrope said, changing into the ratty-haired little boy that was his normal form. "I was just trying to help."

Kurt put both hands on his hips and let the boy see how angry he was. "I don't care if you vere trying to save ze vorld! You are never, _ever_ to go to an enemy stronghold by yourself, ever! In fact, you're not to go up top for two veeks, understand me?"

"All right," Lycanthrope agreed, dejected.

"And no sewer spelunking, eizer."

"Aw man! C'mon, K, there's nothin' left!"

"And nothing is vhat could have been left of you, Lycanthrope. Zey are out to _kill_ us! And you're not immune any more zan ze rest of us. Do you have any idea vhat zey might have done to you? Any idea at all? Zey might have turned you inside out in one of zeir experiments, just like we've heard of. Zey vould have treated you like an animal and you vouldn't believe vhat you'd feel, just because they vanted to see how long it took you to die! It vould have-"

Jack's hand clamped down on Kurt's shoulder. "K…"

It was as if Kurt had been snapped back into reality. He looked from Jack back to Lycanthrope and discovered that the boy's eyes were filled with tears and he was trembling with a not-so-hidden fear. Kurt's left hand made its way to his face and ran across his eye patch for a moment. His right hand had formed into a fist and it slowly let loose. That was just before he finally bent over the boy and embraced his tiny form. Lycanthrope flung his arms around Nightcrawler's neck, clutching at him as if letting go would let loose some sort of natural disaster.

"Lycanthrope, don't ever do zat again," Kurt said, his voice trembling.

Lycanthrope sniffled a few times, then nodded, still clinging to Nightcrawler. Kurt scooped the boy up and started down one of the corridors. "Jack, tell zem," he said, disappearing into Lycanthrope's little part of the compound.

It was several moments of silence before someone finally spoke up.

"Tell us what?" Mylene asked of Jack.

"Forge," said Jack, "what would it take to build that time-hoppin' gizmo ah yours?"

Kitty took a step toward Jack, hopefully. "Does that mean you guys are planning what I think you're planning?"

"S'right, babe," Jack responded, "we're sendin' you back."

* * *

 

Word of the plan spread quickly. The entire Morlocks community sprang into action and numerous sorties to the surface were planned to gather equipment that Forge needed to build his machine. In less than a week, the parts were scattered over the entirety of Forge's lab, making the place look even more like the lab of some mad scientist than it normally did. At almost any given time of the day he could be heard tinkering away, mumbling some obscenities when something went wrong or broke.

In the meantime, Kitty had a chance to see just exactly what the Morlocks were all about. Word had reached Jack of a round-up operation headed by the New York national guard. It had already gathered a rather large number of Mutants and was shipping them off to a small island just off the coast of Lake Erie. It was happening in their back yard, and Kurt and Jack decided that they couldn't ignore it.

"Funny thing about the info," Jack was telling Kurt and Mylene in the middle of an organizational meet in Kurt's quarters. Kitty was sitting in, hoping to offer some help. "My source said the letter came right to his drop point near point Charlie. No one knows about those drop points besides you, me, Mylene, and my source. Not even other Morlocks."

"We've only had zose drop points for a veek," Kurt stated.

"Exactly," said Jack, "which means our friend out there knows where and how to look for us."

Mylene folded her hands and rested her chin on them. "This make anyone else nervous?"

The other three all put their hands in the air.

"So did you, like, check into it?" Kitty asked.

Jack nodded. "It's just like the letter said. There's fifty-some people being held in a detention center near Brockport. They're shipping them out tomorrow. So, whatever we do, we've gotta do it before then."

Kurt nodded, taking in the information. "Vhat kind of security does zat facility have?"

"Not much. I don't think they expect us to hit someplace as far out of New York City as that."

"Does it match vhat ze letter said?"

"To the word."

"All right, zen," said Kurt, "ve'll conduct a raid on ze detention center. Vill seven people cover it?"

"Oughta be enough," said Jack, "me and six others. And before you say anything, K, you're needed here to coordinate Kitty's time jump. No offense, but I can lead a simple raid just as well as you can."

Kurt sighed and for a moment it seemed as though a protest were about to issue forth from him, but he finally agreed. "But take one of ze Spark twins vith you. Mindspark and Dreamspark are telepathically linked. It vill keep radio transmissions between here and zere down. Get ze rest of your team togezer and leave as soon as you can."

"I'll be outta here in two hours," Jack confirmed, rising from the table and exiting the room.

"Jack, be careful!" Mylene called after him.

Lycanthrope came zipping into the doorway just after Jack left. "Hey, K! Forge sent me. There's a snag with the time jump machine."

* * *

 

"Power," said Forge once they had gathered in his lab, "the thing takes too much power. And we can't find anything portable enough to bring down here to generate it."

"So, like, how much power are we looking at?" Kitty asked, looking over one of the components that Forge had cobbled together. He grabbed it out of her hands as if the thing would break if you looked at it funny.

"We're talking about what an entire power plant would put out," Forge stated, placing the thingamabob back down on the table, "if you wanna try and move a power plant, it's up to you. But I can't guarantee we won't be noticed."

"Dammit," Mylene swore, "just when we'd got it all figured out, and now you're saying there's no way we can do it?"

"Well, maybe if we invested in enough stock…"

"Can you make it portable?"

The question had come from Kurt who had one of the small devices that were laying about in his hand. He was looking over the rest of them thoughtfully, noticing that there was no piece bigger than his open hand.

"You got somethin' in mind, K?" Mylene asked.

"Ve've got a plan and I intend to carry it out. If it takes a power plant, zen zat's vhat ve'll use. Forge, can you make it portable?"

Forge took the piece from Kurt's hand and turned it over as though it were a magic eight ball. "Dunno, really. I suppose if I arranged the parts right, I could decrease its size, and maybe some wiring. But I'm not sure just how small I could make it."

"Ve need it as small as possible."

"I'll do my best. But I can't guarantee a thing."

"All right. Just do vhat you can. Mylene, I need information on ze local power plants. Zen get some sleep. You've been up for almost twenty hours."

"On it," Mylene responded, already on her way out the door, "and I'll sleep when you do." She disappeared around the corner.

"So, is it always this, like, hectic around here?" Kitty asked of Kurt as they exited Forge's lab and left him to his tinkering.

"Only vhen zings are coherent," Kurt responded.

"Oh, that makes me feel so much better."

* * *

 

It was several hours and a catnap enforced by Mylene later that she, Kurt, Kitty and Forge were gathered in Forge's lab with the young lady known as the Mutant Mindspark. She was perhaps seventeen and one of a set of identical twins. Her hair was white save for a few streaks of black in some choice places and it spilled over her shoulders and halfway down her back. She wore a white turtleneck and a vest of black over a pair of gray jeans. She was sitting on the floor, her legs crossed and her eyes closed as if looking into a dream.

"They've made contact with a cell of five local resistance fighters who know the layout of the place," she informed the room, "they're guiding them in now."

"Make sure zat Jack knows I vant him to be careful," Kurt commanded.

Mindspark stifled a small giggle. "Yeah, he knows," she said before pausing for a moment and getting a rather horrified look on her face. "I am _not_ going to repeat that, sister!"

Mylene crossed her arms across her chest. "Blizzard's getting a little pissy, I take it." This elicited a giggle from Kitty and a snicker from Forge, but Kurt continued to stare at Mindspark with a serious face, never looking away as if the teen was some sort of all-important tactical display.

"They're moving through the complex, now," stated Mindspark, "the local cell members are leading the way toward some kind of underground tunnel. Sounds like they've got a guy on the inside."

"Anyone we know?" Mylene asked.

"They haven't said. No time to talk about things like that. They're just getting in and out fast as possible. As soon as they get there, everything's going to break out into chaos and our guys will reduce the visibility in the place."

"Who's going out first?" Nightcrawler asked.

"Blizzard's going out first followed by Dewfog. They're planning to reduce the ambiance to pea soup and get the refugees the hell out. They're about to go."

Kurt clenched his teeth and tried valiantly to contain his anxiety. Kitty took her eyes off of Mindspark and her running commentary for a moment in order to steal a glance at Kurt. His tail was twitching and thrashing back and forth and she recognized it as a nervous habit he had had back when they were both at the Xavier Institute. The more things had changed, the more they had stayed the same.

Strange… when had she started thinking as though the time she was in was her true place? The memories of the Xavier Institute were fading under the atmosphere of the place she was in now. If was beginning to feel as though she had lived through all of the past fifteen years with everyone. Why was that, she wondered…

"They're up and out of the hole," Mindspark stated, bringing Kitty's train of thought to a very sudden stop.

"I vant to know vhat's happening," Kurt demanded.

"Dreamspark's going up now." There was a short pause. "Everything's already half covered over in fog and snow. Still no sign of their contact on the inside, but he's apparently sending the refugees in the direction of the tunnel. They've started exchanging fire now!" She gasped suddenly. "We can't see Blizzard anymore! Lost him in the pea soup!"

The room took a collective breath and held it and Kurt moved a step closer to Mindspark, his face filled with obvious worry. Mylene's hands were suddenly clasped one into the other and she began to bite her lower lip nervously.

"That's the last of the refugees, they're all in the hole. So's Sis. Blizzard hasn't come back in yet and we still have yet to see the guy from the inside. They're keeping the tunnel open as long as possible, but they can't hold out much longer. Sis and Dewfog wanna know what they should do; seal and run, or hold out until they can't?"

Kurt ground his teeth together and his tail thrashed wildly. His hands closed into fists and he remained silent and seemingly indecisive.

"K?" Mylene ventured.

Kurt's scowl deepened, but he remained silent.

"Kurt…" Kitty prodded.

"Seal it."

"But, Kurt-" Forge began to protest.

"I said seal it! Get zem out of zere!"

There was a pause before anyone in the room spoke again. "It'll take a minute for them to seal the opening," Mindspark finally announced. That was just before she gasped in surprise.

"Vhat is it? Vhat happened?" Kurt asked, urgently.

"It's Blizzard… and… and the contact from the inside… it can't be, that's not possible. It can't be him."

Mindspark settled into a shocked inactivity. Her closed eyes continued to stare into that far-off place that allowed her to communicate with her sister, but she said nothing further. Desperate to know what was going on, Nightcrawler removed one of his gloves and clamped a bare hand onto one of Mindspark's. After a moment, he let go and took a step back with a shocked face of his own.

"What is it?" Kitty asked. "You look like you saw, like, a ghost or something."

Kurt shook himself out of his haze and collected himself enough to respond. "Maybe I did… Ze contact on ze inside, vith ze refugees… it vas Toad!"

* * *

 

It was several more hours before the rescue team returned, bringing the refugees, the members of the resistance cell, and several shiny new weapons back to the Morlocks' layer in New York City. Because they had broken up into several groups shortly after leaving the detention center, the groups came trickling in over the course of about two hours. Jack's group came plodding in midway through the second hour. He was accompanied by Toad and seven or so refugees. As soon as he had heard that Jack had returned, Kurt teleported to the commons area to meet him. Kitty, Mylene, and Forge were hot on his heels by foot.

Jack was sporting a blood-laden bandage on the bicep of his left arm and seemed to be favoring his left knee slightly. Toad was right next to him, ready to help the stubborn-by-nature Morlock if his strength should suddenly give out. All in all, the former member of the Brotherhood looked none the worse for wear. He was still shorter than average for his age, just as he had always been, due to his mutation. His sandy blonde hair was kept shorter now, in a spiked crew cut. The outfit he wore still bore a form reminiscent of the one he had worn when working for Mystique, but he had obviously made some changes to it. Mylene took over from Toad at Jack's side, checking over the bandage and generally making a fuss over him.

"M, it's just a scratch," he insisted.

"Some scratch," Mylene mumbled back to him.

"Jack, vhat happened?" Kurt demanded, approaching him.

"Ah, I just got knicked by a bitta laser fire. I'll just be feelin' it in the mornin'."

"H-Hey, 'Crawler!" Toad exclaimed, letting Mylene take over on the Blizzard watch. He dropped into a leap over the two of them and landed next to Nightcrawler. "Long time, no see. S'up, yo?"

"Toad! Vhere have you… Ve thought zat you vere-"

"Dead?" Todd finished for Kurt, standing back upright and spreading his hands out in front of him. "C'mon, man, you know me better'n that." An abnormality came to Kurt's attention, then; the last finger of Todd's right hand was missing.

"Vhat happened zere?" he asked, indicating the hand.

Todd looked at it as though he had forgotten completely about it. "Oh yeah, that. Wolverine and I got caught back in Chicago and they hacked it right off after I tried to escape once." He pointed to Kurt's eye patch. "Looks like you lost somthin' a bit more important, there. Guess you been through ten kindsa hell, huh?"

Kurt stepped toward Todd and put both hands on his shoulders in an urgent gesture of inquisition. "Vhat happened to Volverine? Vhere did zey take him? Did he get out vith you?"

Todd looked away as if wanting to avoid the subject. "Didn't take them long to figure out about them metal bones ah his," he said, "look, I never particularly liked the guy, but… what they did ta him, I wouldn't wish it on anybody, y'know."

Kurt fell silent and looked away, his one eye hardening into flashing anger.

"So, like, how did you find the resistance cell in Brockport?" Kitty asked, trying to change the subject.

"Whoa, pussy-cat!" Todd exclaimed, finally noticing Kitty for the first time. "So, they finally dug ya' up, after all this time, heh? You don't look a day older, yo."

"Well, that's, like, a really strange story, but you first."

"Fair 'nough. I found these guys 'bout a year ago. I was following some rumors about a resistance cell in New York. Then 'bout three months ago, I hear about another one in the city, so I looked into it and dug up your drop points. Never figured it'd be you guys, though."

"So, you're the one who's been freakin' us out like that!" Mylene exclaimed.

"The same, yo." Todd looked about the commons area. "This is some set up you got goin' here. So, wat'cha'll been up to?"

"Time travel," Forge proclaimed.

Todd looked up at the tinkerer as though he had completely lost his marbles…


	6. Farewells and Finales

Kurt's little room had become an impromptu command center again. Mylene had returned with the blueprints to a nearby power plant. No one asked where and how she got them. Frankly, no one cared. They were unfurled on the floor in the middle of the group of six Morlocks who had crammed themselves into the room. Jack, now sporting a fresh bandage on his left arm and a splint on his right leg, sat there contemplating the blueprints. Finally, he looked over to Mylene.

"This is the easiest to get into?"

"Yeah, man," Todd agreed, "I'd hate ta see the worst."

"Hey, gimme a break," said Mylene, "this is all I could get on such short notice. Probably all I could get at all, since I got lucky."

"So, like, what's the plan?" Kitty asked.

"Forge?" Kurt prompted.

Forge opened up the bag that he had resting in his lap. The thing he brought out was a large and heavy looking construct of cobbled together electronics arranged in a sort of column. "We've gotta get four of these," he said, pressing a button on the side which extended the column and a tripod at the wider end, "into the plant and hooked directly into the energy output of the place. We set 'em up a meter apart and put this," he pulled another bag into the middle of the group from behind him and pulled out an beetle-like, half dome of a machine about the size of a large pizza, "into the middle of them to active the sequence. That'll open the Chrono Hole directly above the machines and all Kitty has to do is jump on through. At least… that's the theory."

"Oh gee, that's, like, so comforting," Kitty carped.

"And if something goes wrong, it just blows up and we're all terrorists," Mylene agreed in kind, " _love_ it, when do we start?"

"First ve have to figure out a vay into ze place," Kurt stated, "ve'll vork it like a raid. Five of us to carry ze generators and no more. Obviously, Jack is ze one staying behind zis time. Ze rest of us vill each take-"

"Wait, K," Jack interrupted, "I get'cha when you say I'm not going, but what happens if the rest of ya' are all taken out at once on this li'l romp? Shouldn't we get some of the others?"

Kurt looked directly across the circle to Jack and fixed him with his one eye. "Vell, obviously Katzchen is going along. Ve'll need Forge zere in case somezing needs to be repaired quickly. Zat leaves zree others and ve need the zree best fighters ve have. Mylene, Toad and I are it. If anyzing happens… you're in charge of ze Morlocks."

There was silence as the two of them stared across the circle at each other. For a moment, it seemed as though Jack was going to make another protest, but he finally nodded instead and they left it at that. Both were oblivious to the fact that Kitty was staring at Kurt as though he had just grown horns. She shook herself out of it when Todd began to speak again.

"In any case, we still gotta figure a way in there," he said and pointed to the blueprint, "if dat's the main power output, and those are the entrances, we gotta get from point A ta point B."

"Vhat do you know about ze security zere, Mylene?"

"Four men at each of the four entrances," she responded, "obviously, not enough to hold us all off if we all charged one."

"Yeah, but they might call the others from the other gates if we did that," Jack stated, "and remember, they've got more firepower in their weapons than we do with Mylene's fire balls. Stealth is the only way."

"I'll try'n not take that personally," quipped Mylene.

Kurt considered for a moment, staring at the blueprints and resting his chin in one hand. "I zink I have an idea."

* * *

 

Kitty had been the first out of the room after the meeting had ended. The enormity of what they were about to do had settled into the room with the subtlety of a ton of bricks and everything had suddenly turned taciturn in nature. It was obvious that everyone was preoccupied with their own thoughts and revelations about the Chrono Hole and it was beginning to weigh on everyone, Kitty included. She leaned against the wall in the quiet commons area. The meeting had gone into the middle of the night, so the place was largely deserted. Silently, the others all filed out after her, each one returning to their own places of sleep for the night.

Kitty sighed and tilted her head to the ceiling, her own thoughts a bit of a jumble in her head. Kurt came out shortly after the others.

"Aren't you going to get some sleep?" he asked.

She looked over at him uncertainly. "Um… yeah, I guess so."

Kurt made a very odd gesture; he began patting his head as if checking for something stuck to the sides or the top.

"What're you doing?" Kitty asked around a chuckle.

"Checking my head for horns. You're looking at me as if I just started growing zem."

Kitty giggled. "No, it's not that."

"Then _vas_ ," Kurt asked, a little more intensely than Kitty was expecting, "vhat is it?"

"In the meeting… you… called me Katzchen. You haven't done that since I, like, got here."

Kurt looked away, quite obviously noticing it for the first time. "So I did. Vonder… vhy zat is."

Kitty was suddenly prey to an uncontrollable instinct. She wasn't sure how it had crept up on her, but she found herself acting on it before her logical mind could kick back in and she took hold of one of Kurt's hands. "You could, like, come with me, you know. You and Jack and Lycanthrope and everyone. Get out of this place, this time. Live like people again."

Kurt put his other hand on top of hers for a moment and his one eye stared into hers. Kitty found herself looking into it and she saw her own reflection, her own wish, in more than one reflection. They seemed never to end and the reflections blended into one another, hypnotizing them both in this cryptic stare, until Kurt closed his eye, breaking the pattern. He shook his head back and forth once.

"Zat's not possible. Zere vould be two of everyone here. Ze time to prevent zis has passed and now you're ze only one who can." He shook his hands free and turned to walk away. "I have some zings I need to do before tomorrow, so-"

He stopped. Kitty had taken hold of one of his hands again. "Listen," she said, "look, you're, like… I mean… well, what I wanna say is that… well… you're not my Kurt and all, but, like the eye patch kinda grew one me, an'… look, I promise I won't forget you."

He sighed, not turning back around. "I became ze demon I vas called and if all goes as planned tomorrow… I von't have even existed. It's better for everyone if you _do_ forget me."

He shook his hand free for a second time and walked away silently, back into his little dark room, flipping the blanket over the door behind him.

Kitty sighed. "Stubborn," she whispered to herself.

* * *

 

From the bleary-eyed appearance of everyone assembled, it was apparent that none of them got any real sleep the night before, least of all Forge. He had been up most of the night tinkering with the Chrono Hole generators, perfecting them and making certain the things would actually work when the time came.

This time, Forge's lab was the meeting place as the inventor was still working on his all-important project. Kitty, who had been up since fairly early herself, was the first to wander in.

"Hey Forge," she said, "I got a question."

"Fire away, Kitty-cat," he said, utilizing his tool-arm and putzing with one of the unfolding columns.

"So, like, I got here almost a week ago, right?"

"Yeah?"

"And you're just building that time machine thing now."

"Umm hum."

"So, if you built the thing, like, after I got here… how'd I get here?"

"Yep."

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Nope."

"Didn't think so."

Jack and Mylene came in just then, keeping Kitty from pressing the matter further. She decided it was probably just some random little quirk of time travel and left it at that. Better to just accept it and move on.

Jack and Mylene had their fair share of sleep in their eyes as well. Jack's hair, usually straight and obedient, was poofy in places, even sticking up in clumps. Mylene had two very dark circles under her eyes, making her look vaguely like a raccoon. They both sauntered in with yawns on their mouths.

"Man," Kitty exclaimed, "you two look like-"

"Don't _even_ start," Jack mumbled, limping past on his bad leg.

Todd was next into the room. He came hopping in, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and obviously the only one of them who was ready to greet the day. "S'up, yo!" he exclaimed.

"You, if you continue to be so damned cheerful," Mylene groused.

"Whoa," said Todd, "guess she's not a morning person. Hey, where's the 'Crawler?"

"He's off sending the Spark twins on a quick scout of the power plant," stated Jack, "not such a bad precaution, if you ask me. We're gonna start this li'l shindig at sundown so we've got the cover of night. Everyone remember the plan?"

Everyone in the room, with the exception of the still puttering Forge, nodded.

"All right. 'Till then, we've gotta few continuity issues to straighten out. K's old watch, for one. One of the reasons this whole mess started was Kitty took his hologram generator when she disappeared. You still got the thing?"

"Yeah," Kitty answer, reaching into a pocket and pulling the watch out, "it, like, broke when I was trying to keep hold of Kurt back then."

Jack took it from Kitty's hand and took a look at it. "So, this is the li'l gizmo. Forge, make sure it's workin', will ya'?"

Forge's eyes lit up upon seeing the watch. He put the Chrono Hole generator aside and snatched the watch from Jack. He was soon completely lost, inspecting the circuits and buttons on the thing.

"Second, Kat, is you're wardrobe there," Jack continued, "obviously, you can't wear that back to your own time." He gestured to the black body suit and dark green armor that she was wearing, a variant on the Morlocks' general attire theme. "And we obviously don't want you just goin' in there unprotected. So, you're gonna havta wear the armor over the street clothes you came in so that you can get if off quick before goin' through the Hole."

Kitty looked down at the attire and imagined the armor over her pastel themed school clothing. "Eew! I'm gonna look like a complete dork!"

Jack crossed his arms and made a sour face. "It's a commando raid, not a fashion show," he said, somewhat exasperated.

"Yeah, yeah. But, like, I'm still gonna look like a dork."

"No argument here," Todd said, jokingly which earned him a bit of a glare from Kitty.

Suddenly, everyone became aware of a soft snoring sound coming from the corner where Mylene had plopped down. Her head was lolled to one side and her mouth was gaping open. She was fast asleep.

"This is gonna be a long day," Jack sighed.

* * *

 

Shadowcat's eyes had finally adjusted to the lack of light, but she still hadn't gotten used to the headset covering one ear or the heavy backpack weighing down her back. Nightcrawler was with her, crouching in the rows of hedges next to her with his own backpack and a rather large and imposing laser rifle in hand. Silently, he peered out a small hole in the hedge and kept a watch on the building ahead of them.

"How much longer?" Shadowcat asked, somewhat impatiently.

"Give zem time," Nightcrawler responded, "ve vait for zeir call." He put a hand to his own headset. "Blizzard, any vord from ze others on your end?"

"They're still gettin' in position on the other side," Jack's voice came though both their headsets.

"Roger zat." Without taking his gaze off of the power plant Nightcrawler spoke to Shadowcat. "Zis is ze part I hate most; ze vaiting."

"I hear ya'," Shadowcat responded.

"Fire Bomber here," Mylene's voice came through a moment later, "we're in position and ready to go whenever you are."

"All right, zen," Nightcrawler responded, taking his backpack off and plopping it on the ground next to Shadowcat, "Fire Bomber, as soon as ze entrance near ze zree of you is cleared, get inside. If the men zere don't go to support ze main entrance, contact me right avay and zen pull back immediately."

"Copy that," Fire Bomber responded.

Nightcrawler stood up, making certain he was still in the cover of the hedges, and looked down at Shadowcat. "I'll be back for you in a moment, Katzchen."

Shadowcat nodded. "Yeah, just like, be careful out there. And by the way, you said it again."

The blue furred mutant said nothing in reply, but simply drew his laser rifle and looked back to the power plant. He bamfed out in a puff of smoke that smelt of sulfur and Shadowcat quickly waved it away. She took up Nightcrawler's spot among the hedges and peered out the same hole he had.

Nightcrawler reappeared directly in front of the main entrance to the power plant, rifle drawn and firing shots immediately. The four guards there sprang into action and two shots were fired back at him. At least one of the two others was calling out over their own radio system.

"It's the Nightcrawler! We need backup over here on the north entrance!"

Dropping into a roll, Nightcrawler dodged the line of fire from the guards already there. Stopping his roll on one knee, he fired off a few more shots, managing to catch one of the guards in the shoulder Several more of the guards, at least eight, came around the corner of the place drawing their own weapons and closing in. As they formed a circle around him, he feigned a loss of charge on his rifle, deciding to save the rest of the charge for later, put it in its holster at his side and cautiously turned to each guard in turn, glaring.

"Hold up guys," said one of the guards, putting a hand to his headset, "we're to take him alive. They don't want him dead, yet."

Nightcrawler dropped to all fours and continued turning to each guard in turn as they closed in on him. When they started to get what appeared to be dangerously close, he added a growl to the glare. One of the guards moved for a tackle, but he bamfed out of the line of action and up only about two yards or so into the air. He landed on the guard, jumped again and kicked one of the others in the face, effectively knocking both out cold. Nightcrawler bamfed out again, dodging an oncoming rifle butt and he tackled another of the guards from behind. Two more joined the frey and piled on top, sandwiching Nightcrawler in the midst of three of them. One got a good hit in on his side and he could have sworn he heard a slight crack accompany the jolt of pain. Paying it no heed, he lashed one of the two on top with his tail, knocking him backward. A well placed kick got rid of the other one on top of him.

"Nightcrawler! We're in!" Toad's voice came through his headset.

He didn't miss a beat. Sending a fist flying across the jaw of the guard he had tackled, he jumped clear of the guards and bamfed out.

He rematerialized back in the hedges next to Shadowcat and collapsed to his knees, holding his side and panting as if to catch his breath. Shadowcat put a hand on his shoulder.

"You all right?"

He grabbed on to her hand with his own free one and nabbed his backpack with his other one. "Zere's no time for zat! Let's go!" They both bamfed out and came out of the other place on the opposite side of the power plant from where Nightcrawler's brawl had taken place. They were only a few scant feet from the wall of the place and made their way to it easily. Shadowcat phased them through the wall and they were inside in an instant.

They both paused and Shadowcat spoke into her headset, allowing Nightcrawler to catch his breath. "Blizzard, we're in. Where's the power output from here?"

"Where's here?"

Shadowcat looked about and spotted a sign on the wall. "Uh, junction 12-B on the ground level."

"Okay, the output's at 20-B on the same level," Blizzard replied, "head north and take a right at the fifth corridor.

"We're at thirteen," Forge's voice came through, "we'll hold position and wait for you."

"Negative," Nightcrawler stated, "get to ze output and establish a perimeter as fast as you can. Ve'll be right behind you."

"Right."

Shadowcat and Nightcrawler took off down the hallway and skidded to their right at the fifth intersection.

Fire Bomber let loose several fireballs down the corridor behind her. Toad had taken point and Forge was between the two of them. Each of them was weighed down by their own heavy backpack. Forge had the largest one of the bunch, the central controller for the Chrono Hole generator. Shots of laser fired back at the trio as they sped down the corridor and Fire Bomber silently wished Blizzard was with them so that they could make a little steam to cover their backs, but knew she could make due with what she had to work with.

"This is it!" Toad called from point as he entered a large room. His head whipped from side to side, checking for anyone who might wish to stop them, kill them, or generally be a pain in the back side.

"Check for other exits!" Fire Bomber tossed over her shoulder to Toad and Forge, still tossing fireballs at a couple of advancing guards. "And then start setting up!"

The laser fire had stopped and the two guards had disappeared down a set of side corridors, waiting for a chance to advance again. Fire Bomber waited on them, a fireball ready in her hand.

There was a commotion down the corridor to her right and suddenly one of the two guards was flung into the corridor and a shot rang out. A shot replied from the opposite side and Fire Bomber heard a tell-tale combination popping and sucking noise before seeing the tail end of an expanding ring of smoke. The other guard gave a yelp and then appeared in the corridor as well, slamming backside first into the other, already unconscious guard. Fire Bomber was fairly certain it was clear, but kept her fireball ready just in case. Nightcrawler and Shadowcat came around the two corners. Nightcrawler had his rifle raised and at the ready and Shadowcat had her two hands clenched into fists. All three relaxed when they recognized each other.

"Is zere a door?" Nightcrawler asked of Fire Bomber. She nodded. "Let's seal it up, zen, and get to vork."

Once inside, Fire Bomber closed the door and set to work welding it shut, a blue flame protruding from her right index finger. Meanwhile, Forge had already begun to tinker with the one of the consoles in the room. He had a panel open and was connecting a rather large cable to one of the ones in the console he had broken. Sparks were flying from the rough connection as he worked with his tool arm. At the same time, Toad had begun setting up the generators, unfolding the four satellite ones and setting them up. Shadowcat lent a hand, setting the bug-like one in the center and attaching cables from it to the other four.  
There was a sudden ker-thunk from the door and Fire Bomber took a step back when a large, inward pointing dent made its presence known. Everyone, save the frantically working Forge, looked to it.

"Aw, man, that didn't take long!" Toad exclaimed.

Nightcrawler pointed his rifle in the general direction of the door, motioning the others to do likewise. "Zere's only ze one vay in or out. Let's make it unattractive, _ja_? Forge, keep vorking! Shadowcat, take his rifle and cover him as best you can. Toad, Fire Bomber, let's hold ze line. No one gets through, no matter vhat!"

Another ker-thunk opened a hole in the middle of the door. Fire Bomber sent a fireball through it and readied another while Nightcrawler opened up with his rifle. "Hustle it up, Forge!" she called.

"Believe me, I'm _hustling_!" came Forge's reply.

Another ker-thunk opened the hole wider and several pairs of what appeared to be metal tongs began pulling on the edges. Shots began to rain in on them from the outside and everyone took defensive positions. Shadowcat and Forge, behind the console, were well out of the line of fire and the other three Morlocks found nooks and crannies to press themselves into.

"Got it!" Forge shouted into the cacophony of light and sound.

Nightcrawler was in the midst of changing charge packs on his rifle. "Fire it up!" he called. "Get Shadowcat zrough! Fast!" Once the rifle was recharged, he drew a bead on one of the enemy gunmen.

Shadowcat shed her Morlock's armor quickly and left it in a pile next to Forge. She had handed him the rifle and he was busy firing shots over the console. "Red button to start her up," he instructed between shots, "then just jump into the portal. If it's not set right, you can fricassee me in whatever time you end up in, I won't mind, promise!"

"I'll hold you to that," Shadowcat shouted over the din, "in case this doesn't work, you take care of yourself."

"The generator!" Toad shouted, somewhat panicked. Firing off his tongue into the air, he pulled down a piece of the power plant from the ceiling, a large conduit of some sort or another. The pull generated an action-reaction pair and he was pulled into the pathway of the door's open hole. The falling piece of conduit took a rather large laser shot and exploded just after Toad had managed to get his tongue unwrapped from it. He jerked to one side and fell into a sidelong leap, clutching his left shoulder and somersaulting to the side. Shadowcat reached out and pulled him behind the console. He leaned up against it and she took a look at the laser burn.

"Looks like it cauterized," she said.

"Forget about it," Toad snapped back at her, "just get goin' already. None of this don't mean crap if you don't get back to your time. Go!"

Shadowcat steeled herself and nodded. She lunged into the clearing, keeping as low as she could to stay out of the line of fire.  
There was a series of groans and creeks from above in the same general area as the part of the ceiling Toad had pulled the conduit from. Several pieces of tubing, conduit, and sheets of metal came raining down into the room. Shadowcat dodged all that she could, but one late falling one caught her by surprise and landed a blow across the back of her head. She fell to the floor motionless, a few feet from the Chrono Hole generator.

"Shadowcat!" Nightcrawler called. He repeated himself when there was no response from her. Gritting his teeth, he fired off a few more shots through the now gaping hole in the door. "Toad! Cover me!" He slid his rifle across the floor toward the console Forge and Toad were crouched behind and Toad reached out for it with his tongue. Moments later, he had joined Forge in his shooting frenzy.

Nightcrawler dropped to all fours and raced along the floor to Shadowcat, keeping as low as he could, he picked her up, hearing a soft groan from her to his complete relief, and made his way with her to the main generator in the middle of the other four. Whipping his tail around, he slapped the button on and in a new cacophony of light, sound, and assault on the senses, they five generators sparked to life and the swirling white of the Chrono Hole opened up above them. Once he was certain it had formed completely, Nightcrawler kicked upward with his powerful legs and he and Shadowcat went flying into the portal, disappearing into the white.

* * *

 

Whatever had formed the vacuum in that intensely bright pool of light on the ceiling had suddenly switched directions. Instead of having to keep hold of the cafeteria floor to keep from being pulled upward, Kurt now had to keep hold of it to keep from being blown to the outside edges of the giant room. The hand he had had extended, reaching for Kitty, was back on the floor in an instant.

The cafeteria doors blew open and the crowd of panicked students burst through it in a giant pile. It cleared in moments, each teenager scrambling to get out of the building as fast as they could.

Kurt was still squinting up into the light when a shadow appeared, falling out of it limply and without any particular form to it. The figure fell down on top of him and he only had a moment to shift positions and catch it to keep from being knocked on the head. The instant he caught the falling shadow, the light and the wind died out. His vision cleared and he caught sight of another figure, somersaulting to the floor just in front of him, fading into the air as it did.

Was he crazy, or was this second figure… blue?

It landed, barely substantial and just before it faded entirely, the figure raised a transparent head. For just an instant, Kurt's eyes locked on to one white eye and an eye patch.

And then, the figure was gone completely.

Something clamped down on his wrist, weakly and he was suddenly aware of the bundle that had falling into his catch. He looked down and found it to be Kitty, one rather nasty looking bump forming on her forehead. She had planted his watch back on his wrist and the hologram activated itself once again. She looked up at him and shook her head as if to clear it, then threw her arms around his neck and collapsed into him.

There was several moments of silence before the other X-Men, still in the cafeteria, made their way over to them in a rush.

"What just happened!?" Rogue exclaimed.

"Dunno," Scott stated, looking up at the ceiling where the light had been only moments before.

"Kurt, is Kitty alive down there?" Evan asked.

"Ja," Kurt responded, "looks like she got hit on ze head, zough."

"Let's clear the place and get her home, then," said Jean, "I dunno what that was, but I don't know if anyone saw you without your image inducer, Kurt, and we don't want to answer any questions at the moment."

"Jean's right," Scott agreed, "let's blow this place."

* * *

 

Kitty slowly came to, feeling the encompassing softness of a pillow under her head and a blanket over the rest of her. Her head throbbed rhythmically and she slowly opened her eyes, the pain intensifying slightly with the new introduction of light to her senses. Once her vision cleared, she found Kurt looking down, a smile of infinite relief spreading over his blue, elfin features.

One eye, two eyes, no eye patch. Normal. Just as was planned.

"Katzchen!" Kurt exclaimed. "You're feeling better, _ja_?"

Slowly, Kitty sat up, putting a hand to her head. "Yeah, I think so. We're back at the institute. How'd we get here?"

Kurt gave a short chuckle. "Hello! Scott's got a _car_ , remember?"

Kitty blinked a few times, somewhat stupidly. "Oh yeah. Right."

"Ororo said you just got a bump on ze head. Don't tell me you have amnesia."

It was Kitty's turn to laugh.

"So…" Kurt ventured, "don't suppose you have any idea vhat zat light vas?"

"What are people saying it was?"

"No one really knows, but zere's one zeory about crossed vires from ze lighting an air conditioning systems at ze school."

Kitty shrugged. "I suppose that's, like, good an explanation as any."

Kurt looked at Kitty dubiously, making a bit of a sour face at her. "You know more zan you're letting on."

"Yup."

"And you're not telling me?"

"Nope."

"Vhy!?"

Kitty gave a bit of a whimsical sigh and looked out her window before pushing back the cover and getting up from her bed. "Because it's not anything you have to worry about, any more," she stated walking across the room and out the door. "It's been ages since I had anything to eat. Coming?"

Kurt stood in the middle of Kitty and Rogue's empty room for a moment, watching Kitty's retreating back as though he had just seen Big Foot walk by. "Any m-… But… Katzchen, vhat do you mean by zat? And ve just ate lunch an hour ago!" He hurried after her in the general direction of the mansion's kitchen. "Vhat's going on! C'mon, don't keep secrets from little old me! Kitty!"

The room fell silent after the two of them had left. The wind blew on the curtains on the window and a soft breeze made its way through the room. Had anyone been there, they might have felt a gaze and a smile from out of nowhere. It belonged to no one, it simply existed in a world where everything was right.


End file.
